Upset-Minded Statesmen Roll to Final Six at Nationals

William Penn University Athletics

Lincoln, Neb.–The William Penn men’s bowling team started slow Thursday, but found its groove in a big way in its inaugural trip to the xbowling Intercollegiate Team Championships.

The Statesmen opened the event by placing 11th out of 16 teams with a 32-Baker game qualifying score of 4,981 pins. The squad then managed two huge upsets to stay very much alive in the double-elimination bracket.

The day started with an opening 12-game block that netted the navy and gold just 2,422 pins (high of 233 twice). Fortunately, William Penn answered back with the field’s highest second block score at 2,559 (high of 244, only three games under 200) to jump from 15th to the #11 seed.

The lower seed rode that momentum into Blue Bracket upsets over #6 West Texas A&M and #3 Calumet-St. Joseph (Ind.) in best-of-seven matches. Friday will begin with a third-round matchup against #2 Robert Morris (Ill.) with the winner advancing to the Blue Bracket finals (overall semifinals).

With its two championship bracket victories, the Statesmen have guaranteed themselves of placing no lower than sixth.

Competing for William Penn at the ITC this week is Michael Applegate (Fr., Council Bluffs, Iowa, Undecided), Drew Balta (Jr., Walford, Iowa, Education), Brandon Barboza (So., Brick, N.J., Sociology), Kyle Clark (Jr., Aurora, Ill., Physical Education), Cameron Foster (Jr., West Jordan, Utah, Business Management), Jacque Kaune (Fr., Anchorage, Alaska, Business Management), Conan Mackey (So., Bray, Ireland, Public Accounting), Nathan Namanny (Jr., Denison, Iowa, Applied Mathematics), and Piet Schaeffer (Jr., Livingston, Scotland, General Mathematics).